Slam
Slam is a weapon-dependent ability that causes damage plus X, consumes 15 rage and generates no extra threat. As of Patch 3.0.2, Slam no longer resets weapon swing, but rather suspends it. The default cast time is 1.5 seconds, and it is not interrupted by damage, unlike most spells. Slam also gets more benefit from slower weapons than Mortal Strike/Whirlwind/Overpower, due to it not being normalized. So while Mortal Strike does better damage with slower weapons due to higher damage range, Slam gets a higher bonus from weapon speed (that is not normalized for non-instant attacks). One other example of non-normalized attack is Heroic Strike, which is a next melee attack. It was once the only warrior ability with a cast time, but Shattering Throw, added in 3.1.0, is now the second warrior ability with such a mechanic. Rank table Notes Often misunderstood, this ability seems worse than Heroic Strike, but the key is the weapon used. Slam bypasses the usual melee swing timer, instead using a Channeling type bar more usually found on spells. This, in effect, gives all weapons a flat speed of 1.5 seconds (Less with talent). This is not helpful when using daggers and dual wielding, but with very large two-handed weapons, it can reduce swing times from the default, thereby dramatically increasing DPS. Heroic Strike, on the other hand, is 'Next Attack', which varies wildly depending on weapon. This ability forms the basis for what is known as the Slam Rotation, a popular method for dealing boss damage with a two-handed weapon. Talents *Improved Slam: reduces cast time by up to 0.5/1 seconds. *Bloodsurge: 7/13/20% chance to get an instant cast slam after using Heroic Strike, Whirlwind or Bloodthirst. When to use Slam As stated above, use this instead of Heroic Strike if using two-handed weapons. As a general rule of thumb: if your weapon speed is greater than 2, Slam is preferred over Heroic Strike. Here comes the math: Ignoring Heroic Strike (Rank 10)'s damage buff against targets and considering the un-talent-buffed Slam (Rank 6), then the DPS by Slam is greater than the DPS from Heroic Strike when: :Weap. Dam.)+140*1/1.5 > Weap. Dam.)+176*1/(Weap. Speed) Where (Avg. Weap. Dam.) is weapon dps multiplied by its speed. Rewriting this inequality as a function of average weapon damage vs. weapon speed gives: :(Avg. Weap. Dam.) > Speed) -140/Speed) or, for any rank of Heroic Strike and Slam: :(Avg. Weap. Dam.) > Speed) -S/Speed) where "HS" is Heroic Strike's damage bonus, and "S" is Slam's damage bonus. Bingo! now we have a criterion for deciding if our weapon warrants the use of Slam. All you have to do is plot the function above and see whether your current weapon has an (Avg. Weap. Dam.,Weap. Speed) combination that places it above the line formed in your graph. If it does...use Slam. If it lies below the line...use Heroic Strike. More simply, any weapon with a speed greater (i.e. slower) than 2 will warrant the use of Slam. Other considerations Note that Slam generates much less threat than Heroic Strike, which can be useful in Secondary Tanking. Slam is affected by the Global Cooldown, which means that even if it is talented to a 0.5 second cast, you will still have 1 second left on the Global Cooldown before you can do anything else. This does not, however, make Improved Slam useless, as your auto-swing will begin 1 second sooner than if you did not have talent points spent in Improved Slam. As an alternative to the slam/auto-swing rotation this skill can be used to deal a series of blows with just 1,5s cast time. This is only useful to quickly finish off weak enemies when you have lots of rage to spend, bringing their life down under 20% to execute, and can make a sense if you want to take full advantage of short-time buffs. Patch changes * * * Externla links Category:Warrior abilities